What Remains
by Dihinner
Summary: After leaving a zombie infested Savannah, Clementine comes across another group of survivors that have had it almost as bad as her.


A cool breeze passed through a huge, open field. The field went on as far as the eye could see; only stopping briefly at a simple dirt road before continuing into the distance. A small, lone figure could be seen slowly making their way across the field. Anything that saw the figure might give them a slight glance before moving on.

After all, it did smell like them.

The lone figure was, in fact, a little girl no older that eight or nine. She was wearing a red hoodie with the words 'BROOKLAND' on it and a faded beige dress under it. Both of which were covered in blood. In her hands was a pistol, having nearly a full clip of bullets. Upon her head was a white and blue baseball cap with a large letter 'D' on it. Her head was turned downwards towards the ground; the events of the prior hours had taken a heavy toll on her. Just a mere four hours earlier, she had learnt that her parents were dead, everyone else she had gotten to know in the past few days and months were dead, and finally, the death of the man who had taken care of her through the whole ordeal, Lee Everett, was killed by none other than herself as his death wish. She sniffed slightly; he had told her to be strong. But well, how could she be when she had lost everything in a matter of two days?

She sighed and looked up; up ahead there was a tree and a log alongside it. She slowly walked towards it and sat down on the log. She had run out of tears hours ago and now was just trying to remember the time before this. The time before the world ended.

The time before the dead began walking. The time before everyone either survived, died or became one of _them_.

She remembered a mere week ago when she, Lee and many other survivors of the apocalypse. She remembered Kenny, Katjaa and Duck, a small family of three that she met early on with Lee. They had stayed with them until the fateful hour a mere two days ago when Duck succumbed to the bite he received the day prior and his mother committing suicide because she couldn't go on without her son. Kenny, the father of Duck, wife of Katjaa and friend of Lee and hers was devastated at this. Kenny then presumably died earlier this day, as Lee didn't mention to try and find him. Only the two survivors they had met two hours after the deaths of Katjaa and Duck, Christa and Omid.

Christa and Omid were a couple, still able to keep their heads even in the apocalypse (Although Omid could be a bit… odd at times) they had helped her and Lee throughout the past few days. Lee wanted her to find them after she left the fallen city of Savannah, Georgia, where she was just at around two hours ago.

Then there was Ben. Ben was the youngest besides her, although he was a good ten years older than her. Ben didn't always make the best choices, but he usually meant well. But, his worst mistake by far was secretly giving some bandits supplies from their stock.

Four days ago they were in the town of Macon, staying in a motor inn. They had been there for the past three months, hoping to survive the apocalypse there. at that time there group consisted of Lee, Kenny, Duck, Katjaa, Ben, a woman named Carly, another woman named Lilly, whom had a personal grudge against Kenny, who had killed her father in a tense moment of paranoia after her father, Larry, had stopped breathing due to a heart attack.

Lilly had told Lee that someone was stealing form their supplies, which they had little of, and told him to investigate. After a few minutes of searching, Lee found the bag of supplies and brought it back to Lilly. It was then the bandits attacked them for 'stealing from them'. After a brief shootout and Duck and Katjaa being attacked by a walker around the end of the fight, all of them had escaped into a camper van that Kenny had been planning on leaving on for a while.

Lilly, enraged that someone in the group had betrayed them, began to become more and more paranoid by the minute, until eventually in the middle of the night after Kenny had run over a zombie, causing them to stop, Lilly shot Carly in the head, ensuring that she was dead and did not become a zombie.

Angered at the sudden dead of Carly, they all abandoned Lilly on the road where Katjaa had told Lee that Duck was bitten during the bandit attack and continued on until they found a train the next day, where they had met a kind, homeless man named Chuck, or Charles. At two 'o clock that day, Katjaa had asked Lee to tell Kenny to stop the train and that Duck was on his last few moments. Distraught at the thought of her son's death, Katjaa committed suicide right in front of Kenny and a rapidly fading Duck.

It was Lee who put down Duck as an act of mercy. Kenny, who was distraught over the death of his wife and son, fell into a deep depression for the remainder of his days. Two hours later they had come across Omid and Christa, who decided to go with them after Omid injured his leg. The next day they had arrived in Savannah. They quietly progressed through the city, being careful to avoid zombies or 'Walkers' as they had grown to call them, when the bells in a church tower began to toll beside them, alerting the zombies to them.

There was a brief struggle with the walkers after a cryptic warning from the seemingly broken walkie-talkie they had carried with them from the start. Ben, in an extreme act of cowardice, had abandoned her to the walkers which made Chuck sacrifice himself to save her.

The last she ever saw of Chuck was him yelling at them to escape and that he'll catch up with them later.

After securing a house they could all safely hide in, Lee and Kenny had went out to find a boat to escape off the mainland while everyone else stayed at the house. She snuck out while Ben wasn't looking and went after Lee and Kenny. After a brief struggle and meeting a fellow survivor named Molly, Kenny, Molly and herself were separated from Lee when they accidently attracted the attention of some walkers.

After returning back to the house, Lee and a man named Vernon had arrived back at the house. Vernon had left with Christa to the upper floors to check on Omid, who had contacted an infection from his leg injury. Kenny was sitting with Ben in the living room area, trying to drink his despair away as he failed to find a boat with Lee, until she had gone outside into the back yard and into a seemingly locked shed.

Lee had found her moment later and, to his and Kenny's surprise, a motor boat was inside of the shed, all fine except it's missing battery and gasoline. That was when a plan was formed to steal from the area known as Crawford, a place where only the fit could survive and everyone under the age of fourteen or too old or sick were killed.

The group left that night to Crawford to steal the gas, battery and some medication that Omid needed for his infection. After all the supplies were gathered, that was when Ben untimely revealed that he was the one who had been giving the bandit supplies at the motor inn.

Kenny attacked him in rage, screaming at him that he killed his wife and son because of his stupidity. The walkers who had been temporarily unaware of the group's presence then attacked them and they fled Crawford from a bell tower that was attached to the school building the supplies were at.

The little girl closed her eyes; everything after escaping Crawford was too painful for her to remember right now. She had to focus on finding Christa and Omid. Lee had told her to find them, and she'll do whatever she can to.

The girl sighed, and looked up towards the hills in the distance. Something was moving on the hill which made the girl suddenly get off the log she was sitting on. She then noticed that it was not one, but two things walking across the hill. Thousands of thoughts raced through the girls head, were they Christa and Omid? Were they walkers? Bandits? While she thought of what to do, she failed to notice that the two figures on the hill had stopped moving and seemed to have noticed her...

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Nick had never liked the south. Ever. And the zombie apocalypse only deepened his dislike of it. Nick was out on a routinely search for supplies with a fellow survivor and (abet begrudgingly called a) friend, Ellis.

Before the zombies took over the south, Nick was a con man and convicted felon. He had been included in a rather violent gang before this and had just gotten out of prison when the infection, as he and the other members of his group of five survivors called it, had struck the city of Savannah.

It was there where the former con man had met Ellis, a local mechanic, Rochelle, a rookie news producer and a man who preferred people to call him Coach, who was the physical education teacher at a high school in Savannah. Together the four of them traveled through the states of Georgia and Louisiana and endless hordes of zombies to their destination, New Orleans, the supposed 'last holdout' in the entire United States of America. It was after they crossed a bridge about to be bombed where they finally thought they were safe from the zombies after days of traveling where they were sent to a military outpost back in Georgia, right back where they started.

They spent a month there as the military conducted tests on them when they all discovered that they were asymptomatic carriers for the zombie infection. It was there where they had met the final member of their group, a military doctor who disagreed with how the military was running things and helped them escape. He too was also a carrier and told them that they weren't affected by the infection, but they could spread it. Now he and Ellis were looking for supplies in the middle of nowhere.

"Hey, Nick, have I ever told you about the time me and my buddy Keith went hiking? Man, you wouldn't believe all the crazy shit that can happen to you on mountains," said Ellis as he started to ramble on another one of his Keith stories.

Ellis was unnaturally cheerful, even during the one week trip across states. He always went on about his friend Keith, who seemed less and less likely to be still alive every time Ellis brought him up, usually in a story. He also seemed to view the apocalypse as one big dare about who could survive the longest.

Nick sighed, "Ellis is now the best time?"

"Alright, but there was a seriously pissed off mountain lion," said Ellis. He turned his head towards the east, gazing towards a tree and a thoroughly scavenged car. Then Ellis noticed that something else was down there.

He squinted, "Hey, Nick, do y'all see that?"

Nick rolled his eyes, "see what? More grass?"

Ellis shook his head, "No, down there, by the tree."

Sure enough, Ellis was right. Nick could make out the shape of a person down by the tree and from the looks of it; whatever it was had noticed them.

"Yeah, I see it," Nick said after a moment.

"What do you think it is? A zombie?"

Nick shook his head, "Whatever it is, they noticed us."

"Should we check it out?" asked Ellis.

Nick didn't reply for a moment, was it a zombie? Or another survivor? Whatever it was, it might be worth seeing.

"Alright, take out your gun, we're going to see what that is," said Nick at last.

The two slowly made their way down the hill they were walking across and towards the figure. More and more they saw the figure in more detail until Ellis froze.

"Holy shit," said Ellis, "Is that a kid?!"

"What?" asked Nick, "How the hell could a kid be here?"

Ellis shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe their infected?"

"Probably," said Nick, "I doubt any kids are still alive after three goddamn months."

The two continued to walk towards the presumably infected child until Ellis stopped again. Nick continued walking and glanced back at him.

"What is it? Come on, you've seen infected kids before."

Ellis shook his head slowly, "Nick, that kid's got a gun."

"So? We've got guns," replied Nick.

Ellis shook his head again, "No, that kids alive!"

Nick turned back to where the child was and noticed that it indeed was alive and was pointing its gun right at him. He then heard a weak voice.

"Stop! Don't come any closer!"

Nick rolled his eyes, "And why the hell not?"

There was a pause, "I have a gun."

Nick sighed sarcastically, "So do we. Now, who are you?" he took a step closer.

There was the crack of a gunshot and a small bit of dirt before him exploded, leaving a small bullet hole in the ground. Nick stopped and raised his hands slightly.

"Wow, no need to shoot us."

"Go away," the voice said again.

Nick turned his head back towards Ellis, "hey, Ellis, a little help would be nice."

"Alright, alright," said Ellis, "What should I do?"

"I don't know, the kid's got a gun," Nick said as he turned back to the child, "Didn't you say that you're good with kids before?"

"That as before they started trying to eat me," said Ellis as he slowly walked up beside nick. "Uh, hey there. Where's your group?" Ellis called out.

There was another pause, and from the looks of it the child had lowered their gun. Slowly and carefully, Ellis began to approach the child. When he had gotten closer, he noticed that it was a little girl in a red hoodie, which was covered in blood.

"Hello?" Ellis asked carefully, "Do you know where you group is?"

Again there was no response, only what sort of sounded like crying. Ellis walked closer again, this time being able to tell that her hair was cut short and the word 'BROOKLAND' was on her hoodie.

"Hey," Ellis said softly, "Do you know where your group is?"

Very quietly, Ellis heard the girl say, "Their dead."

Ellis blinked in surprise, "Shit, when did this happen?"

"Earlier," the girl said quietly again.

Ellis noticed the obvious pain in her voice. Obviously she had been on relatively good terms with her old group before they died, so then Ellis asked a different question.

"What's your name?" he asked, "Mine's Ellis."

The girl didn't speak for moment and Ellis heard her take a breath, then sigh.

"Clementine."

I do now own either The Walking Dead or Left 4 Dead 2


End file.
